gentry, this neighbourhood has a breed of horfes fit for the faddle, and carriages of every kind. The colours of horfes are various; but the dark bay, with black legs and feet, is preferred. Their fhape is generally good. They were originally galloways, and faid to have fprung from a Spanifa breed, which came athore on this coaft when one of the veffels of the Armada was wrecked upon it, after failing round by the Pentland Firth. PARISH OF ROTHESAY. Mifcellaneous Cbfervations. During the laft war, there were a number of feamen from the parish in the navy fervice; and, had the prizemoney due to them been properly accounted for, it is believed that prefswarrants would have been unneceffary here; but as matters are at prefent managed, nothing but compulfion will induce them to enter into the navy fervice. Many of them, to whom prizemoney is due, can get no account of, nor even find out the agent in whofe hands it is. Would it not answer the purposes of government equally well, were the management of prizes put into the hands of the pay-office, and government become accountable for it, as well as their wages; and, inftead of obliging the feamen to employ a gents and attornies, at a great expence and risk, might not the inspector of the pay-office correfpond with the miniiters of the different parishes to which the feamen belong, (which he is even at prefent fometimes obliged to do), and the fituation and circumstances of each feaman's right and claim being, in the courfe of the correfpondence, afcertained, payment might be had at the nearest bank, or an order given up on the nearest cuftomhoufe, without either risk or expence? By adopting fome measure of this kind, the minifters of the parishes where there are fea-faring people would have much lefs UNITED PARISHES OF HOUSTON AND Antiquities. ABOUT 20 years ago, when the country people in this parish were digging for ftones to inclose their farms, they met with feveral chefts or coffins of flag ftones, fet on their edges, fides, and ends, and covered with the fame fort of ftones above, in which were many human bones of a large fize, and feveral fculls in fome of them. 'In one was found many trinkets of a jet black fubftance, fome round, athers round and oblong, and others of a diamond fhape, &c. all perforated. Probably they were a necklace. There was a thin piece, about two inches broad at one end, and perforated with many holes, but narrow at the other; the broad end, full of holes, feemed to be defigned for fufpending many trinkets, as an ornament on the breaft. The ground where thefe ftone coffins were found was a little raised, with a mixture of fmall ftones and earth, in the form of a barrow or tumulus. But whether thefe ftone coffins were older than the Roman government in this country, or later, or upon what occafion fo many people were buried It there in that manier, and feveral in one ftone cheft, is not known. feems to have been the confequence of a battle or fkirmish between two hoftile parties; which was the cafe not 200 years ago, between families, through moft parts of Scotland, who often met their enemy, with their vaffals and dependants, and flaughtered one another. Opinion 20 Opinion of Dr Johnson on the Subject of Vicious Intromiffion *. year, I confulted the Dr upon a queftion purely of Scotch law. It was held of old, and continued for a long period, to be an established principle in that law, that whoever intermeddled with the effects of a perfon deceafed, without the interpofition of legal authority to guard againft embezzelement, fhould be fubjected to pay all the debts of the deceafed, as having been guilty of what was technically called vicious intromiffion. The Court of Seffion had gradually relaxed the ftrianefs of this principle, where the interference proved had been inconfiderable. In a cafe + which came before that Court the preceding winter, I had laboured to perfuade the Judges to return to the ancient law. It was my own fincere opinion, that they ought to adhere to it; but I had exhaufted all my powers of reafoning in vain. Johnfon thought as I did; and in order to aflift me in my application to the Court for a revifion and alteration of the judgment, he dictated to me the following argument: "This, we are told, is a law which has its force only from the long practice of the Court; and may, therefore, be fufpended or modified as the Court fhall think proper. Concerning the power of the Court to make or to fufpend a law, we have no intention to inquire. It is fufficient for our purpose that every just law is dictated by reafon; and that the practice of every legal Court is regulated by equity. It is the quality of reafon to be invariable and conftant; and of equity, to give to one man what, in the fame cafe, is given to another. The advantage which humanity derives from law is this, that the law gives every man à rule of action, and prescribes a mode of con From Bofwell's Life of Johnfon. fupport and protection of fociety. That the law may be a rule of action it is neceffary that it be known; it is neceflary that it be permanent and table. The law is the meafure of civil right; but if the meafure be changeable, the extent of the thing measured never can be fettled. "To permit a law to be modified at difcretion, is to leave the community without law. It is to withdraw the direction of that public wisdom, by which the deficiencies of pri. vate understanding are to be fup plied. It is to fuffer the rafh and ignorant to act at difcretion, and then to depend for the legality of that action on the fentence of the Judge. He that is thus governed, lives not by law, but by opinion: not by a certain rule to which he can apply his intention before he acts, but by an uncertain and variable opinion, which he can never know but after he has committed the act on which that opinion fhall be paffed. He lives by a law (if a law it be,) which he can never know before he has offended it. To this cafe may be juftly applied that important principle, mifera eft fervitus ubi jus eft aut incognitum aut vagum. If intromiflion be not criminal till it exceeds a certain point, and that point be unfettled, and confequently dif ferent in different minds, the right of intromiffion, and the right of the Creditor arifing from it, are all jura vaga, and, by confequence, are jura incognita; and the refult can be no other than a mifera fervitus, an uncertainty concerning the event of action, a fervile dependance on private opinion. " It may be urged, and with great plaufibility, that there may be intromiffion without fraud; which, how Wilfon against Smith and Armour. ever ever true, will by no means juftify an occafional and arbitrary relaxation of the law. The end of law is protection as wellas vengeance. Indeed vengeance is never ufed but to ftrengthen protection. That fociety only is well governed where life is freed from danger and from fufpicion; where poffeffion is fo fheltered by falutary prohibitions, that violation is prevented more frequently than punifhed. Such a prohibition was this, while it operated with its original force. The creditor of the deceafed was not only without lofs, but without fear. He was not to feek a remedy for any injury fuffered; for injury was warded off. "As the law has been fometimes administered, it lays us open to wounds, because it is imagined to have the power of healing. To punith fraud when it is detected, is the proper act of vindictive juftice; but to prevent frauds, and make punishment unneceffary, is the great employment of legislative wisdom. To permit intromission, and to punish fraud, is to make law no better than a pitfall. To tread upon the brink is fafe; but to come a step further is destruction. But, farely, it is better to inclofe the gulf, and hinder all accefs, than by encouraging us to advance a little, to entice us afterwards a little further, and let us perceive our folly only by our deftruction. "As law fupplies the weak with adventitious ftrength, it likewife enlightens the ignorant with extrinfic understanding. Law teaches us to know when we commit injury, and when we fuffer it. It fixes certain marks upon actions, by which we are admonished to do or to forbear them. Qui fibi bene temperat in licitis, fays one of the fathers, nunquam cadet in Micita: He who never intromits at all, will never intromit with fraudu lent intentions. "The relaxation of the law against vicious intromiffion has been very favourably reprefented by a great mal ter of jurifprudence, whofe words have been exhibited with unneceffary pomp, and feem to be confidered as irrefiftably decifive. The great moment of his authority makes it neceffary to examine his pofition. Some ages ago, (fays he,) before the ferocity of the inhabitants of this part of the island was fubdued, the utmoft feverity of the civil law was neceffary, to reftrain individuals from plundering each other. Thus, the man who intermeddled irregularly with the moveables of a perfon deceased, was subjected to all the debts of the deceased without limitation. This makes a branch of the law of Scotland known by the name of vicious intromission; and fo rigidly was this regulation applied in our Courts of Law, that the most trifling moveable abftracted malâ fide, fubjected the intermeddler to the foregoing confequences, which proved in many inftances a most rigorous punishment. But this feverity was neceflary, in order to fubdue the undifciplined nature of our people. It is extremely remarkable, that in proportion to our improvement in manners, this regulation has been gradually foftened, and applied by our fovereign Court with a sparing hand.' "I find myfelf under a neceifity of obferving, that this learned and judicious writer has not accurately distinguifhed the deficiencies and demands of the different conditions of human life, which, from a degree of favagenefs and independance, in which all laws are vain, paffes or may pafs, by innumerable gradations, to a ftate of reciprocal benignity,in which laws fhall be no longer neceffary. Men are first wild and unfocial, living each man to himself, taking from the weak, and lofing to the strong. In their first coalitions of fociety, much c this original favagenefs is retained. Of general happiness, the product of general confidence, there is yet no thought. Men continue to profecute their own advantages by the nearest way; way; and the utmoft feverity of the civil law is neceffary to restrain individuals from plundering each other. The restraints then neceffary, are reftraints from plunder, from acts of public violence, and undifquifed op preffion. The ferocity of our anceftors, as of all other nations, produced not fraud but rapine. They had not yet learned to cheat, and attempted only to rob. As manners grow more polished, with the knowledge of good, men attain likewife dexterity in evil. Open rapine becomes lefs frequent, and violence gives way to cunning, Thofe who before invaded paftures and ftormed houfes, now begin to enrich themselves by unequal contracts and fraudulent intromiflions. It is not against the violence of ferocity, but the circumventions of deceit, that this law was framed; and I am afraid the increase of commerce, and the inceffant ftruggle for riches which commerce excites, give us no profpect of an end fpeedily to be expected of artifice and fraud. It therefore feems to be no very conclufive reafoning, which connects thofe two propofitions; the nation is become lefs ferocious, and therefore the laws againft fraud and coven fhall be relaxed.' "Whatever reafon may have influenced the Judges to a relaxation of the law, it was not that the nation was grown lefs fierce; and, I am afraid, it cannot be affirmed that it is grown lefs fradulent. "Since this law has been reprefented as rigorously and unreasonably penal, it feems not improper to confifider what are the conditions and qualities that make the juftice or propriety of a penal law. "To make a penal law reasonable and juft, two conditions are neceffary, and two proper. It is neceffary that the law fhould be adequate to its end; that, if it be obferved, it fhall prevent the evil against which it is directed. It is, fecondly, neceffary that the end of the law be of fuch importance, as to deferve the fecurity of a penal law fanction. The other con ditions of a penal law, which though not abfolutely neceffary, are to a very high degree fit, are, that to the moral violation of the law there are nany temptations, and that of the phyfical obfervance there is great facility. "All thefe conditions apparently concur to justify the law which we are now confidering. Its end is the fecurity of property; and property very often of great value. The method by which it cffects the fecurity is efficacious, becaufe it admits, in its original rigour, no gradations of injury; but keeps guilt and innocence apart, by a diftinct and definite limitalion. He that intromits is criminal; he that intromits not, is innocent. Of the two fecondary confiderations it cannot be denied that both are in our favour. The temptation to intromit is frequent and ftrong; fo ftrong and fo frequent, as to require the utmost activity of juftice, and vigilance of caution, to withstand its prevalence; and the method by which a man may entitle himself to legal intromiffion is fo open and fo facile, that to neglect it is a proof of fraudulent intention : for why should a man omit to do (but for reafons which he will not confefs, } that which he can do fo eafily, and that which he knows to be requi red by the law? If temptation were rare, a penal law might be deemed unneceffary. If the duty enjoined by the law were of difficult performance, omiffion, though it could not be justified, might be pitied. But in the prefent cafe, neither equity nor compaffio n opcrate againft it. A ufeful, a neceffary law is broken, not only without a reasonable motive, but with all the inducements to obedience that can be derived from fafety and facility. "I therefore return to my original pofition, that a law, to have its effect, must be permanent and ftable. It may be faid, in the language of the fchools, Lex non recepit majus et mintis, -we may have a law, or we may have no law, but we cannot have half a a law. We muft either have a rule of action, or be permitted to act by difcretion and by chance. Deviations from the law must be uniformly punilhed, or no man can be certain when he fhall be fafe. "That from the rigour of the original inftitution this Court has fometimes departed, cannot be denied. But, as it is evident that fuch devia tions, as they make law uncertain, make life uniafe, I hope, that of departing from it there will now be an end; that the wildom of our ancestors will be treated with due reverence; and that confiftent and steady decifions will furnith the people with a rule of action, and leave fraud and fraudulent intromiffion no future hope of impunity or escape." Memoirs of James Bofwell, Efq. AMES BOSWELL, Efq. was born at Edinburgh on the 29th of October, N. S. 1740, being the eldest fan of Alexander Bofwell, Efq. an eminent Judge in the Supreme Courts of Seffion and Justiciary in Scotland, by the title of Lord Auchinleck, from the Barony of that name in Ayı fhire, which has been the property of the family for almost three centuries. His mother was Mis Euphemia Erfkine, defcended in the line of Alva from the noble houfe of Mar, a lady of dif. tinguished piety. He received his early education at the fchool of Mr James Mundell, in Edinburgh, a teacher of great reputation; amongst whofe fcholars were, Mr Ilay Campbell now Lord Frefident of the Court of Seffion, and many others who do honour to his memory. He went through the regular courfe of the College of Edinburgh, where he formed an intimacy with Mr Temple, of Allardeen in Northumberland, fome time Rector of Mamhead in Devonfhire, and now Vicar of St Gluvias in Cornwall; an intimacy which has continued without interruption, and has probably contributed to keep alive, that love of literature and of English manners which has ever marked Mr Bofwell's character. He very early began to fhew a propensity to diftinguifh himself in literary compofition, in which he was From the European Magazine, encouraged by the late Lord Somerville, to whofe memory he pays a grateful tribute. While he was at Edinburgh College, Lady Houston, fifter of the late Lord Cathcart, put under his care a comedy, entitled, "The Coquettes; or, The Gallant in the Clofet; with a ftrict injunction that its author fhould be concealed. Mr Bofwell, who was then very fond of the drama, and affociated much with the players, got this comedy brought upon the ftage, and wrote the prolegue to it, which was fpoken by Mr Parfons. But it was not fuccessful, being in truth damned the third night, and not unjustly; for it was found to be chiefly a tranflation of one of the bad plays of Thomas Corneille. Such, however, was the fidelity of Mr Bo well, that although from his attending the rehearfals, and other circum flances, he was generally fuppofed to be the author of it himfelt, and con fequently had the laugh and fneer of his country against him, he never mentioned by whom it was written, nor was it known till the discovery was made by the lady herself. Having ftudied civil law for fome time at Edinburgh, Mr Bofwell went for one winter to continue it at the University of Glasgow, where he alfo attended the lectures of Dr Adam Smith on moral philofophy and rhetoric. At |